I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night
Alive as you and me
Said I, “But Joe, you’re ten years dead.”
“I never died,” said he.
“I never died,” said he.

Inside Eastern State Penitentiary, a lone woman sings a haunting refrain before kicking off a raucous vaudeville party with a ragtag band of clowns. With dark humor and the high-energy movement of early animation, they enact the story of Joe Hill, union leader, songwriter, and the defendant in a sensationalist murder trial that ended with his execution.

The 2013 re-imaging on the company’s 2006 Philly Fringe hit featured huge and loud singing steeped in union-style song, music made from found percussion—saws, vases, pots—and the lyrics of Joe Hill echoing down the prison cellblock. A journey of railcars, murder, sham trials, secrets taken to the grave, dreams, mystery women, and the war between unions and robber barons.

In short: music, humor, great physicality, daydream, vilification of the underclass.

PRESS

“In its 17-year history, the Fringe Festival has spawned a number of shows … that deserve the label ‘masterpiece.’ Now joining this select group is Swim Pony’s thrillingly inventive The Ballad of Joe Hill.” -J. Cooper Robb, Philadelphia Weekly